Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (1983) 3

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (1983) 3

Jul 1983

Tangled Web

by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, Ernie Colón, John Costanza, Tom Ziuko, Karen Berger

Dark Opal learns about Earth and Amy Winston from Sardonyx. Granch is revealed to be Dark Opal’s eldest child. Carnellian, it turns out, was taken from Earth and adopted by Dark Opal. 

Amy returns to her home on Earth only to discover that two days have passed since she left home. Her parents were worried sick and ground her. She tells them that she knows she was adopted but nothing else. She cannot return to Gemworld right away because her gemstone needs to replenish itself.

Granch goes on a quest to find and free his siblings. Dark Opal has disowned them and will not acknowledge them as his. 

Dark Opal kidnaps Citrina. He fools her by using a shard of her own gemstone to contact her. He plans to use her as bait to get what he really wants, Princess Amethyst and her gemstone. 

Herb, Amy’s father, tries to talk to her about where she disappeared to but she doesn’t want to tell him (or her mother) anything. She is convinced they will think she is crazy if she tells them the truth. 

The issue ends with Amy opening a portal back to Gemworld moments before her father walks into her room. He sees her walking toward it and freaks out. 

Thoughts

I like the cover but it seems a bit misleading. Is that Amethyst with the purple hair and blue skin? If it is someone else then it is someone who is not in this issue. Amy does not get attacked by a snake-like creature in this issue as it shows on the cover. Maybe this cover is jumping the gun a bit and possibly should have been used on a future issue. I like the design on Amy’s shirt. It looks like an evil version of Pac Man. 

Amethyst only appears on two pages early in this issue. One of those pages is a splash page. 

I didn’t expect Granch to turn out to be Dark Opal’s eldest son. What an interesting twist! I was similarly surprised to learn that Carnellian is adopted and originally from Earth. Amy/Princess Amethyst has yet to learn these facts. 

Purple Prose

Three letters from readers, one of which comes from T. M. Maple. All three are in reaction to the preview in Legion of Super-Heroes 298. All three readers enjoyed it to varying degrees. All three letter writers are males.